Fife-built yachts return to the Clyde for sixth Richard Mille Fife Regatta

Twenty-two Fife-built yachts gathered at Largs Yacht Haven in June for an occasion that no finishing order can adequately measure. The 2026 Richard Mille Fife Regatta ran from 4 to 12 June on the Firth of Clyde, its sixth edition, convening as it always does on its own schedule, only when the boats, the people, and the moment have properly aligned.

The Fife name belongs to three generations of a family from Fairlie, a small village on the Clyde coast, who spent roughly a century producing racing and cruising yachts of extraordinary refinement. The oldest vessel present, Uandi, slid down the Fairlie slipway in 1897. The youngest, Fiona, was launched in 2005 yet carries yard number 215, placing her squarely within that same lineage. Across the whole fleet, the span amounts to more than a century of one family's conviction that a yacht must be both fast and bonnie.

Before a race was started, the regatta announced itself with ceremony. On the Saturday morning, the assembled fleet formed up and sailed in parade past the Fairlie foreshore, the very ground where the Fife yards once stood. The village turned out in numbers. Visiting crews dressed their boats and themselves for the occasion. For the yachts moving along that shoreline, it was less a parade than a homecoming, and in several cases the interval between launching and returning stretched well beyond a hundred years.

Racing opened in an easterly breeze, with class one boats working a figure-of-eight course around the Cumbraes. Gusty conditions off the Ayrshire coast produced an uneven spread of sail plans across the fleet, and two boats retired before the finish. The racing that did take place set the week's tone without delay. The two 8-Metres, Falcon and Saskia, went at each other from the gun, trading places through the afternoon in a close, sustained contest that a time-on-distance rating can describe in numbers but never quite convey. Kentra, the 104-foot gaff ketch and undisputed grande dame of the fleet, was unmistakable against every other boat on the water. And Sian II, a Conway Fife One Design representing the Royal Anglesey Yacht Club, marked her own centenary by winning the opening race outright.

Day two showed the Clyde in its less welcoming mood. A southerly front held the fleet at the dock for four hours, with wind touching 27 knots in the start area before conditions moderated enough for a race to be feasible. When the fleet finally got away on a downwind start, the sea was still lively. Kismet hoisted to leeward of Kentra as both crossed the line. Others were more measured, settling into the swell under white sails as the dark sky shifted north. William Fife would have had little to complain about watching his designs work through those seas more than a century after the drawings were made. Every boat reached Rothesay safely, and the stories were worth telling over the evening's lines.

A rest day in Rothesay gave way to Tuesday's passage through the Kyles of Bute, where the transit itself became part of the event. Under mirror-calm conditions, support boats towed the smaller yachts up the East Kyle and through the Burnt Isles while sunshine and rain took turns on the surrounding hills. Once the breeze arrived on Loch Fyne the conditions transformed entirely, and the fleet spread across the Sound in champagne reaching winds with full sail drawing. Kismet pushed out front, the 8-Metres hunted her, and the Conway One Designs raced each other with a sharpness that would characterise the series from that point forward. Sian II levelled with Coila on points, and the contest between those two ran all the way to the final day.

The fleet rested at Portavadie on Loch Fyne, and the regatta took on a different character for the evening. Some crews took the tender across to Tarbert. Others stayed back to work on their boats. By nightfall everyone had gathered for a dock party among the yachts, the kind of occasion that forms without much organising when passionate people have been living alongside each other for days.

The passage back to Largs was the longest race of the week and, for the smaller boats, the most demanding. Both classes beat down Loch Fyne in steep, choppy water before rounding Garroch Head at Bute's southern end and entering the Clyde proper. The 8-Metres cut through the conditions and rounded first. Kentra, Merry Dancer and Mikado followed. The Conway One Designs ground out four and a half hours hard on the wind before they could finally ease sheets and breathe. Kismet lost a hatch cover on the beat. Intombi, finding conditions that suited her, took the class win.

The final day's racing brought the King's Course, north of Great Cumbrae, with a forecast of building westerlies that arrived on schedule and then some. The race team shortened the smaller boats' course into the Largs Channel as a precaution and sent the larger yachts out toward Toward Bank. It was the right decision. Squalls swept through during the second half of the race, and their violence brought both 8-Metres to their knees. Falcon and Saskia, spinnakers up for the return leg, broached and had to depower substantially, opening the door for Kismet, Sonata and Merry Dancer to press through. Kentra finished first, crossing back into the marina under full sail to the sort of reception a 104-foot gaff ketch has every right to expect.

In the Largs Channel, the racing was intense through to the finish. An incident at the leeward mark between class leader Coila and Lotus added drama to the closing stages, though damage was minimal. Coila held on to win the final race, with the newly restored Sian II finishing close behind.

Prize-giving was held at Kelburn Castle. Duncan, the 1925 Fife Bermudan sloop, received the Spirit of Pen Duick platter as the overall Class One winner. Her owner, Ash Butler, noted what made the week distinctive: more than half the fleet crewed by families rather than professionals, and a regatta that feels, above all else, real. Coila took the Class Three overall prize, a Royal Clyde Yacht Club claret jug dating from 1876.

Regatta Director Fiona Houston, who grew up in Fairlie, spoke to the pleasure the week had given her. She was clear that it could not happen without Richard Mille's support, nor without the volunteers whose shared passion makes the whole thing possible.

The week contained everything a proper regatta should. Boats raced hard, broke things, and carried children and grandparents and professionals all in the same cockpit. Coila struck Lotus at the leeward mark. Kismet lost a hatch cover beating down Loch Fyne. Duncan's owner accepted his trophy and mentioned that he spends most of his time in a workshop rather than on a racecourse. Not one of these things diminished the week. Every one of them was the week.

2026 Richard Mille Fife Regatta

Fleet & Highlights

LOA figures sourced from official regatta entry list. Some details unconfirmed at time of publication.